We spend a lot of time on our phones, particularly on Instagram. You can browse through pictures of your besties, celebrities, and accounts for clothes, fitness, and most importantly, food, all in one feed. However, sometimes in the midst of your mindless scrolling through pictures that have been cropped, edited, and filtered just for your viewing pleasure, one stray thumb movement slips and your phone betrays your trust. Yes, sometimes while lurking 75 weeks deep in your boyfriend's-ex's-best-friend's ex's photos, you have an accidental like...

Sometimes an accidental like is no big deal. Maybe it's a complete stranger from another state with whom you have no real life ties. Well, that’s not probable, but it's very lucky. Maybe it's also one of your friends who will probably be flattered you were that far back into her Instagram feed. But more than likely, it's someone who you either know and share mutual distaste for (read: your ex, your current girlfriend/boyfriend's ex, an ex best friend with a lot of drama, that girl you hate so pretend to never acknowledge, etc.), and the minute you see that little white heart turn red, you instantly break out in sweat, and your heart rate spikes to spin class levels of intensity. When something this terrifying and horrible happens, you may find yourself passing through the five stages of grief as you come to terms with how terribly your thumb has betrayed you with an accidental double tap.

Denial

At this point, you may be faced with the disbelief that you are actually creepy enough to be 75 weeks deep in the Instagram feed of someone you supposedly "literally don't even think about anymore." Yeah, well, sometimes insecurity/boredom breeds curiosity, and then there you are. You may also try and convince yourself that by unliking it as fast as you can, you may have somehow prevented it from actually occurring at all. Well, I can tell you from experience that this is not the case. At this point, you might even be in such denial as to shut your phone and pretend it never happened at all. But it did.

Anger

Next you might feel angry. Angry at yourself for caring enough to be looking this far back at someone's Insta photos, angry at the person for having an Instagram (therefore creating the possibility for this to happen at all), and angry at your phone and thumb for betraying you so deeply.

Bargaining

Right now, you might be trying to bargain your way out of this. Someone suffering through the bargaining stage of grief might say things like "Please, I'll never go on their Insta again if this can just go away," or perhaps "Dear God, please, I promise I'll be a better person and volunteer and delete my Insta if you can just make them not see this," or maybe they will try and bargain with themselves by saying "if I turn on airplane mode instantly, maybe it will never go through." Sadly, this is just another stage on the way to dealing with grief, and none of these are likely going to work.

Depression

Cue the drastic statements, and claims that you're going to delete all your social media forever so this never happens again. Now you are probably feeling stupid and embarrassed and have come up with about 15 scenarios involving you and the person whose photo you liked, and none of those scenarios end well (to be fair, none are very realistic either). You probably think that said Instagrammer has already told all her friends, and thus created an army of people who now also think you are a weird, creepy person and that you are terrible. You are not weird or terrible. You might be a little creepy, but who isn't?

Acceptance

You have finally reached acceptance for what you have done and gone through. It hasn't been easy, and there have been a lot of ups and downs, but you finally have realized the following things: 1. This happens to everyone at least once, so rest assured that this person probably has accidentally liked someone else's Instagram post from their visit to NYC 87 weeks ago. 2. They will probably forget it happened in a day or two, and if it takes them longer, then you must actually kind of be a big deal to them and their friends, in which case, you should feel sort of flattered and important. 3. You will do this again, but you now know that you will get through it and be okay. 4. You also know that this is more likely to happen after a wine night with your girls, so maybe don't go on Instagram at that exact time... Just a thought.